Teacher Training By Dr. Diana Wehrell-Grabowski

Just back from conducting two-days of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) teacher training for Rocky Mount School District in North Carolina. What a great group of teachers and administrators. We started off the training clarifying what STEM is, and the importance of implementing STEM investigations that will help to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in our students. Throughout the two-day training teachers used reflective journaling to record their notes, light-bulb moments, drawings, data etc.. Teachers were introduced to wide-array of STEM concepts and practices via hands-on inquiry-based investigations from exploring biomimicry, experimenting with super-absorbing polymers, building lunar modules, bridges, making self-contained eco-systems, and more…I’m looking forward to visiting the school district on two more occasions to continue the STEM training. I believe strongly in providing in-depth, quality training year-round versus “the shot in the arm” training that often occurs without any follow-up training and consultation. Once again it was my pleasure to work with a great group of teachers and administrators representing two schools.

Just back from conducting teacher training in Bangkok, Thailand. As always I’m delighted to share my enthusiasm for science, and likewise learning from those teachers I have the pleasure of meeting during the training sessions. The video below are short clips from a workshop I conducted for middle through high school teachers entitled “Developing Critical Thinking Skills via Incorporating Inquiry-Based Science Investigations”. We begin the workshop by discussing what characterizes critical thinking skills, and how the teachers go about promoting critical thinking skills within their classrooms. Teachers then proceed to conduct several hands-on-minds-on investigations that involve asking higher-order questions, making detailed observations, collecting data, and recording information via reflective journaling. During this particular workshop teachers explored super-absorbing polymers, biomimicry, solar energy, ecosystems, and chemical reactions. Investigations are introduced to the teachers via an inquiry-based format, requiring the participants to discover, question, design, and conduct the investigations on their own with minimal guidance from the instructor.  As usual it was a great group of teachers, with great minds willing to think “outside of the box”.